Cupcake
Posted on May 5, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops
Rosalba’s drawing, inspired by a poem by William Stafford
This last weekend I taught a Painted Storybooks class at Denver University. I love teaching there, partly because it is an old, brick college campus that feels earthy, rich and academic, and mostly because I just love the crowd that shows up. This class was no exception.
The weekend was filled to the brim, with this class, out-of-town relatives, soccer and family stuff. I did not see my kids much, which is unusual for me. On Sunday night I got home at 9:15. Sam came down the stairs in his jammies and said
“Hello Cupcake. I’ve been waiting for you, like a sweet cherry pie.”
The boy has talent for this. He is irresistible, with the chocolate eyes and sweet talk.
Back to painting class. Rosalba was there too, my right-hand woman, without whom I would suffer enormously. Can’t even bear to think about that. She is getting more and more her own artistic voice, a painterly style that she has invented.
Here is the work that was done this weekend by Pam, Rosalba, Michelle, Kim, Carol, Nancy (who turned from cyber friend to live human for me finally) and Marguerite. Thank you all for coming. It was a small class, the smallest I have ever had, but chock full of energy and creativity.
Some of the techniques we used are similar to what I will be teaching at Art & Soul in Virginia in the Magical Midnight Stories class. That class is about surface design on black paper. The paper is rich and velvety, and would make a dashing background for an Elvis portrait. I grew up in Southern California, and spent lots of time over the years in Tijuana, where black velvet painting reined. Elvis, bullfights, sad-eyed children and cats. I loved them, hanging on the canvas walls of the street galleries. And I loved the zonkies. A zonky is a burro, painted up like a zebra that pulls a cart you can sit in and get your photo taken, wearing a huge sombrero that says “Tijuana” on the brim. This is something all of us should do with a few of our closest friends, and just after a couple of shots of tequila.
I am glad I took the time to remember my early influences today. Who knew I would be so imprinted by Velvet Elvis. Come by Art and Soul and you can be too.
Hold Fast
Posted on April 29, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops
I am working on black paper, as I often do, and with a poem by Langston Hughes that is very common, and worth repeating.
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams go,
Life is a barren field,
Frozen with snow.
This is the kind of work we will be doing this weekend at Denver University, and next month art Art & Soul in the class Magical Midnight Stories. We will also make a very simple 2 minute book structure that looks far more complex than it is. Lots of surface design techniques, and lots of fun!
Painted Story Books, next weekend!
Posted on April 25, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops
This coming weekend I am teaching Painted Story Books at Denver University. We will be using all sorts of surface techniques to paint papers, specifically for certain books structures. It is an introduction to making Artists’ Books, which is what I do often and love. A bit of paint, some fairly easy book structures, and some conversation about how the book comes together to present your stories. As usual, I am bringing far more than we will be able to do, but one never knows!
Here is one of the books we will make. It is called the “Temple Box of Dreams”.
dream images
Temple Box of Dreams
Not too many supplies and lots of fun. It is always a great crowd at DU and the only place I teach where men show up, in multiples, which I like very much. Two days of creative fun, and I bring the tea!
Grace and Death
Posted on April 22, 2010 - Filed Under About me, Visual Inspiration, What I am up to
On Tuesday night my friend Helen and I went to the artists’ sketch night at the Body World Exhibit in Denver. The museum was closed to the public, and we checked in at the desk in a nearly empty lobby. There was a visceral absence of the usual crowd, and it was eerie walking through the dark center of the place. All the way in the back corner we checked in again, and enter the lair.
The bodies, people, statues, exhibits, what does one call them, were in various dramatic poses in plexi display boxes. Artists were sitting, standing and kneeling with their drawing pads and pencils, all around each of the displays. It was dark. There was a glowing yellow light on each figure, and mystical music in the air. Words are not working for me right now, explaining this, and I can tell you that I went purely because I did not want to, and I knew that meant there was a growth opportunity there. I am glad I went.
Here are my sketches.
While I was sketching I was thinking how beautiful they were, how so many parts of their bodies reminded me of feathers and flowing water. It scared me a little too.
In Rome there is a chapel made of the bones of the Capuchin monks who died there. It is called the Capuchin Church of the Immaculate Conception. The first time I went there, somewhere around 1980, I remember walking through those skeletally decorated rooms with the hair straight up on the back of my neck. At the end, there is a sign that said something like “Where you are now, we once were. Where we are now, you will be.” I really don’t like that idea. The same with Body World. Maybe I am just too immature to discuss death, perhaps.
Today is gray and wet, my dog is here at my feet and I am drinking a really good cup of coffee, very glad to be alive.
Artfest 2010, Part 2
Posted on April 22, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops
Artfest came and went so quickly! I did not take as many pictures as last year or get to the ice cream store in town it was so busy. My classes were so wonderful, and Kyrrha took both of them. Here are her Spontaneous Deconstructed Journal pages. FAB!
Spontaneous Deconstructed Journal page by Kyrrha
Wax rubbings page and an octopus by Kyrrha
We found some great places for wax rubbings, and everyone worked really hard. I was nervous about the Iron Chef Event that night, and the whole class was like a cheerleading squad. Thank you, thank you! For a great view of what happened that night, head on over to my new friend Liesel Lund’s blog and see.
I would love to see more pages from anyone in the class, and am thankful to have Kyrrha to show off to you! Here is her 3 Letter Words project.
Last but not least is a tiny slideshow of the brilliant Jesse Reno, some shenanigans in Dorm 203, The Festal Virgin and Prep Party (we had about 60 people come and go) and a few of my classes. Thanks to all who showed up. It was a leap of faith for a new teacher, and it was so, so appreciated.
Teacher Appreciation
Posted on April 21, 2010 - Filed Under About me
Someone recently asked me who has influenced my artwork the most. The answer would be my mother. She encouraged me, always. As for teachers, there have been so many I cannot pinpoint one. Fortunately for me, I have had many opportunities to learn from fabulous teachers. Here are a few
Painting and drawing with Giuseppe Gattuso (grad work, Florence, Italy) and three years drawing with Ken Goldman. I had an art teacher for two challenging years in college that taught me the science of light, and all that I know about color. He is not an artist anymore and I cannot find him, but he sure gave me a gift. Thank you David.
Calligraphy I learned from Brody Neuenschwander, Annie Cicale , Carl Rohrs, Laurie Doctor, Nancy Culmone, and Thomas Ingmire.
I learned book making and working with artists books from Bonnie Stahlecker, Edward Hutchins, Laura Wait, Julie Chen, and Paul Johnson. Bonnie was the first book arts teacher I had, and she changed my life. Thank you to Bonnie!
There are so many other artists that I have had classes with, and some that I have never met whose work moves me, the list could go on an on. To all my teachers, thank you, thank you for the generosity of your spirits and the gift of sharing your talents.
Michael deMeng has been writing about teachers, and he has a point of view that I share. We teach because we love to share the excitement of creative work with as many people as possible. There is endless discussion on how far one should go to copy or imitate the teacher. There are a few points to consider (most of them Michael covers) and the biggest would be, why would you want to? What we want to do as artists is find our own visual voice. That said, if teachers don’t want to have students heavily influenced by them, they probably shouldn’t teach.
Thank you to my students too, and more on that later. Get to thanking your teachers, they will appreciate it!
This Week at My House
Posted on April 20, 2010 - Filed Under About me, What I am up to
Arugula, red pepper, Brie and red potato pizza with whole grain crust.
This week has been fabulously textured. We have been cooking, and eating great food. I have actually left my house for social events, and made great headway on my book. The highlight of the week was connecting with the Hallberg Family. You can read that story here. You need to read the comments, towards the bottom. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience connecting with them.
We had sushi night on the deck, it turned out great. Salmon, Ahi, avocado, cucumber, carrots, wasabi and saki. Yum.
Melinda looks skeptical, but the sushi was great.
I had the perfect cup of coffee at OZO coffee in Boulder. It tastes better when it is so pretty.
On Saturday I did what every housewife in America should do. I went to the Roller Derby with 13 other wild women.
I have to say that the Roller Derby is a distant cousin to its bawdy original. The women were not bursting out of their clothes, and they kept their non-manicured hands to themselves. The only similarities to the original experience were the names. My favorites were Dharma Gedden and Kimmy Kimmy Bang Bang. They were polite, nearly, and it was hilarious how jumpy our crowd was to stir things up.
We had regulars sitting behind us, so they explained what was going on, not that our ladies cared much. We were loud and happy.
I have been playing with the Toy Camera app on my iPhone, which I can tell may be turning dangerously toward an addiction. This is the colorful me.
My studio is a train wreck, and I am busy making art for my book, which is a big secret. The first deadline is coming up, and I am trying not to be nervous.
Writing this I realize how much happened here in the last seven days, and yet it seemed so much slower than it usually is around here. What does that say about my life????
Tonight I am going to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to see Body Worlds. It is artists sketch night, and I am going with my friend Helen. It creeps me out, but that is why I am going, to keep myself perked up. Will post my sketches later, along with the rest of my Artfest stuff, which I am way late in posting.
Today is a full fresh day just waiting to be addressed. Better get at it.
Adventure in Italy, September 2011
Posted on April 12, 2010 - Filed Under Uncategorized
I am SO excited to be teaching in Orvieto, Italy in September of 2011. Many people I know have worked with Bill and Kristi Steiner, who run the show over there, and I have heard nothing but positive things about it. WOW! I get to go back to my adoptive roots!
My graduate work was done in Florence, and if I am good I will be fluent once again by the time this workshop happens. The week will involve drawing, painting, stories, Roman mythology, the culture, food, and language of Italy. It will be a sumptuous week, and I am bringing almost all the supplies. What could be easier? You will end up with a leather portfolio of pages collaged with stories that we find there. Ci vediamo in Italia!
Learning
Posted on April 12, 2010 - Filed Under 2010 Workshops, What I am up to
This is a sample of the "Make a Scene" class I am teaching at Art & Soul in Portland
This is my favorite paragraph from another book, written by T.H. White
The Once and Future King
Spoken by Merlin to the young King Arthur, who apparently was feeling like I am feeling today.
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.” —pure science, the only purity there is. You can learn astronomy in a lifetime, natural history in three, literature in six. And then, after you have exhausted a million lifetimes in biology and medicine and theocriticism and geography and history and economics—why, then you can start to make a cartwheel out of the appropriate wood, or spend fifty years learning to begin to learn to beat your adversary at fencing. After that you can start on mathematics, until it is time to learn to plough.”
Come on a my house
Posted on April 7, 2010 - Filed Under My Work, Real Life, Uncategorized, What I am up to
Houses are the one highly overused symbol that I can’t give up. Just can’t do it. I know they are a dime a dozen, yet I keep making them as though originality means nothing to me. The house above is one of a series I did when I was working with house songs, in this case, Come On A My House by Rosemary Clooney. Just love that song, partly because the singer is a hybrid of a hopeless flirt and a begging child. Come on! Don’t moms all over America hear that everyday? The big ol’ bribery part appeals to me too, especially this phrase.
Come on-a my house, my house I’m gonna give a you
Peach and pear and I love your hair ah
Another of my habits is keeping track of my favorite paragraph in every book I read. I often copy them in my journals. Last week I liked this one, from Amy and Isabelle.
“There was all sorts of unhappiness in Shirley Falls that night. If Isabelle Goodrow had been able to lift the roof off various houses and peer into their domestic depths she would have found an assortment of human miseries. Barbara Rawley, for one, had discovered in the shower the week before a small lump in her left breast, and was now, as she waited for arrangements in Boston to be made, in a state of panic the proportions of which she never thought possible; for alongside the dark terror of waiting for the future (was she actually going to die?) was the private realization that she had married the wrong man: her husband, lying next to her in their dark bedroom while she spoke quietly of her fears, had had the audacity to fall asleep.”
It is snowing today, and I am going out to breakfast with my girl. We will have chai and quiche, and chat next to the fire before she heads off to Middle School, where the big worry is whether her best friend is actually going to kiss her boyfriend of one week, or whether it is at all fair for her to be the only sixth grader on the volleyball team, especially since she is tiny, it is so unfair we can hardly believe it. And that boyfriend, well, her friend went to the movies with him on Saturday but her parents had the audacity to actually go too and watch them while there, how gross is that. Nobody has any privacy anymore, and that is so unfair, and on top of that homework is boring.
All is well in Superior, Colorado.
09/04-09/06 Valley Ridge Wisconsin
Art Journaling Magazine
Cloth Paper Scissors
Drawing Lab
Interactive Art Workshop
Letter Arts Review
Somerset Sept
Somerset Studio
Somerset Studio
Somerset Studio
